Animal Migration

Animal migration is a fascinating phenomenon where animals travel long distances to reach breeding or feeding grounds. Discover the intricacies of this behaviour, including the cues animals use to navigate, the challenges they face along the way, and the benefits and costs of migration. Explore our resources and insights on animal migration and expand your understanding of this fascinating natural wonder.

Navigation Networks in the Brain

Professor Kate Jeffery of University College London gave the annual address to the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) this year (2014). This article published in RIN’s Navigation News is, for me, a seminal step forward in describing the parameters of animal navigation and building a structure to delve deeper into how navigation might work. Her idea that…

The hippocampus of rats

Prof Kate Jeffery has done some very interesting work on how the hippocampus of rats processes navigational information. Scientists are clear that the hippocampus is critical for navigation but believe that it is only one part of a larger system that has many functions including recognising landmarks, computing distances and directions etc. and forming memories….

Summary of ideas Spring 2014

Intro I have put together this article to spell out some of the thinking that I have come across recently.  A lot is highly contentious (such as Torsion waves) but as we struggle to understand how animals (and humans) navigate effortlessly, ideas which seemed so strong suddenly seem to be beset by impossible conditions.  We…

Hefted Sheep

This is an English term for sheep that learn to live in a particular location who do not stray from their “land”.  For us this is another piece of the jigsaw of how animals operate in the wild and know where “home” is. DEFRA ( Britain’s government Agency for Rural Affairs)  asked ADAS to do…

The eels are back

Suddenly after years of decline the eels are back swimming up the rivers in the west coasts of Europe in their millions.  We think that their arrival is the result of a truly remarkable journey from their breeding grounds in the Saragossa Sea off Bermuda. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_life_history for more history. There is also the Sustainable Eel Group www.sustainableeelgroup.com